‘Innocence of Muslims’ actors, crew duped by director

Innocence of Muslims.(Screenshot from YouTube user NewsPoliticsNow3)

The controversial film “Innocence of Muslims,” which portrays the prophet Muhammad as a child molester, has outraged Muslims worldwide. But offensive passages were dubbed in after filming, and the crew says the producer lied about his objectives.

The now-notorious movie essentially claims Muhammad was a fraud, portraying Islam’s holiest figure as a womanizer who approved of pedophilia, among other things.

But a statement purportedly written on behalf of the film’s crew says its producer “took advantage” of the team.

“The entire cast and crew are extremely upset and feel taken advantage of by the producer,” the statement, published by CNN, reads. “We are shocked by the drastic re-writes of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred.”

An actress who played a role in the movie told Gawker she was given no signs as to the true end product of the film, which had the working title Desert Warriors and was supposed to be set thousands of years before Muhammad lived.

“It wasn’t based on anything to do with religion, it was just on how things were run in Egypt,” Cindy Lee Garcia said.“There wasn’t anything about Muhammad or Muslims or anything.”

The name Muhammad was dubbed into the film’s audio track during post-production, along with just about every other reference to Islam, offensive or not.

The film’s supposed writer and director, a man calling himself Sam Bacile, is now reportedly in hiding, but told the Associated Press by phone that “Islam is a cancer, period.” A California real estate developer who identified himself as an Israeli Jew, Bacile added that his film was meant as a provocative political statement “condemning Islam.”

Fifty-six-year-old Bacile said he believes “Innocence of Muslims,” which reportedly cost $5 million to make, “will expose Islam’s flaws to the world.”

On Tuesday night a group of men armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles attacked and burned down the US consulate in Benghazi, killing US Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three other consular staffers.

Protesters in the capital of neighboring Egypt scaled the walls of the US embassy there, replacing an American flag with an Islamic banner.

Both groups were venting anger at Bacile’s film.

After spending two months on YouTube with only a handful of views, the film was dubbed into Egyptian Arabic by persons Bacile says he doesn’t know, though he claims to speak enough Arabic to confirm that the translation is accurate. According to Bacile, it took him three months to make the film, with 59 actors and about 45 people behind the camera.

After being translated, the film was shown on Egyptian television, sparking outrage among conservative viewers.

The director said “Innocence of Muslims” had been screened publicly only once, earlier this year to a mostly empty theater in Hollywood.

Mysterious director

Meanwhile, the press questions Bacile’s identity. Some reports suggest that the name Bacile may be a pseudonym for someone affiliated with the Egyptian Coptic Christian diaspora, while others doubt the director has been contacted at all.

A man who claimed he was a consultant on the film told The Atlantic that Bacile was a pseudonym, and that the man was not Jewish or Israeli. Israeli officials said there was no record of him being a citizen.

Amid the controversy and rumors surrounding the film, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a California Coptic Christian earlier convicted of financial crimes, has confirmed his role in managing and providing logistics for its production. He denied having directed the film or knowing purported director Sam Bacile. However, AP reports that the phone number the agency used to reach Bacile was used to trace Nakoula outside Los Angeles. Further, according to federal court papers, Nakoula was known to use the surname Bacily as an alias.

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One Response to “‘Innocence of Muslims’ actors, crew duped by director”

Thank you, OneElectric, for making this thread. I wish I had found it sooner than I have but I will attempt to add to it in some way.

Your conclusions mirror my own. Yesterday, I had to walk away from all the poo slinging that was going on from one side against the other and had a couple of minutes of alone time to digest and reflect it hit me like a ton of bricks. I have to agree that I feel that this one particular ‘ally’ could very well be behind this and will take this line of thinking one step further. Consider if you will:

1. Romney has a history with Netanyahu that dates back to the mid to late 70s when both were hired on as consultants at Boston Consulting Group. Both were essentially fresh out of business school (Romney from Harvard and Netanyahu out of MIT).

2. The 2 have since then had a rather cozy relationship that is outlined in this April 2012 NY Times article. A Friendship dating to 1976, Resonates in 2012 Some notable quotes from the article:
That shared experience decades ago led to a warm friendship, little known to outsiders, that is now rich with political intrigue. Mr. Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, is making the case for military action against Iran as Mr. Romney, the likely Republican presidential nominee, is attacking the Obama administration for not supporting Mr. Netanyahu more robustly.

And:
In a telling exchange during a debate in December, Mr. Romney criticized Mr. Gingrich for making a disparaging remark about Palestinians, declaring: “Before I made a statement of that nature, I’d get on the phone to my friend Bibi Netanyahu and say: ‘Would it help if I say this? What would you like me to do?’ “

3. Enter Sheldon Adelson, who in another NY Times article ( NY Times: Romney Courts Campaign Donations in Israel) is described as a billionair casino owner (His group owns the Venetian in Las Vegas and is reported to be the 8th richest man in America):
But if Mr. Romney was the official guest of honor, speaking for nearly 20 minutes in a conference room at the King David Hotel here, the unofficial man of the hour was sitting just to Mr. Romney’s left: Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate who has donated tens of millions of dollars to Republican causes.

4. Important to note that Adelson was a Gingrich supporter at first when Newt was heading the polls:
The Adelson family almost single-handedly bankrolled Winning Our Future, a super PAC backing Newt Gingrich during the primaries, giving the group more than $20 million.
NY Times Sheldon Adelson Reference Page And let’s take a look at what Netanyahu’s reaction to this was:
Mr. Netanyahu was startled in January by an article exploring why Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire casino executive and outspoken supporter of Israel, was devoting millions of dollars to back Mr. Gingrich. It described Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Adelson as close friends.

Mr. Netanyahu’s office quickly relayed a message to a senior Romney adviser, Dan Senor: the prime minister had played no role in Mr. Adelson’s decision to bankroll a Romney rival.
Source

5. Adelson has now, naturally, thrown in his support (read money) into the Romney camp. Regarding Adelson’s money contributions to “Republican interests” in this election year the source above says this:
making Mr. Adelson a uniquely powerful force in the annals of presidential politics
It also goes on to say that in a Forbes interview Adelson says
In an interview with Forbes magazine, Mr. Adelson suggested he would consider personally spending as much as $100 million on the 2012 elections.

Continued below:

reply posted on 13-9-2012 @ 03:42 PM by MyMindIsMyOwn
Continued from previous post:

6. Adelson is also the publisher of an Israeli newpaper, founded because Adelson was upset over negative press for good buddy Netanyahu. His paper is now the most widely read paper in Israel.
The paper’s publisher, gambling billionaire Sheldon Adelson, is a close friend and political ally of Netanyahu, and according to reports, the papers editor, Amos Regev, was part of Netanyahu’s inner circle for some time.
Source
In 2006, Adelson was so upset that the three major Israeli newspapers seemed to have an anti-Netanyahu bent, that he started his own daily newspaper, called Israel Today or Israel Hayom. According to The Daily Beast’s Aram Roston, the newspaper at first had so much trouble selling advertising that Adelson decided to give it away for free. “The formula worked: it’s now the most widely distributed paper in Israel,” Roston reported in December.
Source

Now, taking these things into consideration here is how I’ve drawn a similar conclusion as you have.
1. Netanyahu and Obama do not share a close relationship by any stretch of the imagination, well documented
2. Netanyahu and Romney share a long and cozy relationship that has gone on for decades
3. Netanyahu would benefit greatly with increased access to the White House to have perhaps a greater ability to influence US policy as it concerns the Middle East should Romney actually win
4. Netanyahu and Adelson are essentially “BFF’s”
5. Adelson has the financial power and political will to shape American as well as Israeli politics.
6. Netanyahu, not wanting to publically show his staunch support and desire for Romney to become our next POTUS and perhaps secret desire to show Obama in a bad light, uses his willing pal Adelson to accomplish this in various ways. (by various ways I mean that I would not at all be surprised to find Adelson somewhere in the list of “undisclosed” financial backers for this idiotic ‘movie’ that seems to have whipped everyone into a frenzy)

My opinion is that this has nothing at all to do with any kind of insult to the Muslim religion, per say, but is a beautifully orchestrated tragic play in order to promote the interests of our supposed ally’s will on our political stage.